PARENTS in Derry have been asked to warn their children over the dangers of gorse during the Easter break after a recent blazed damaged a woman’s home.
The gorse fire was recently set at the rear of Farland Way in the Hazelbank area of Derry which saw a large area of grassland destroyed.
The blaze also spread to the rear of a property in the area, but fortunately crews from the Northern Ireland and Rescue Service (NIFRS) were able to extinguish it, with the damage limited to a fence at the rear of the house and hedges.
It was one of a number of gorse fires recently set in the Hazelbank and Ballymagroarty areas of the city, with a blaze also recently engulfing hedges and shrubs close to cars parked at a retail outlet in the Buncrana Road.
Commenting, the independent councillor Darren O’Reilly, who was present at the Farland Way incident, appealed to young people to consider the implications of their actions before starting fires.
“The Farland Way incident was a close call and I was there with residents throwing buckets of water on the fire because it was just spreading that fast,” he told the Derry News.
“The damage is bad as it is, but it could have been a lot, lot worse and it’s just totally irresponsible of the people who are behind these recent spate of gorse fires.”
He added: “I would be calling on parents, especially over the Easter break when the schools are off, to ensure their children are not engaging in this extremely destructive behaviour which could have lethal consequences.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the NIFRS urged the community to play its part in helping stamp out deliberate fire setting over Easter.
It comes after new figures revealed that firefighters dealt with 417 deliberate fires throughout the north between April 10 and 23 last year, 177 of which were gorse fires.
Gerry Lennon, Group Commander, Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) said that such incidents place an ‘extra strain’ on their crews.
“While we deal with the issues of deliberate fire setting, hoax calls and attacks on Firefighters throughout the year we do find that over a school holiday period, such as Easter, there are unfortunately a small minority of people who continue to put an extra strain on our resources by engaging in such anti-social behaviour,” he said.
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